Sexton, Johnson win council seats

November 5, 2013

ALPENA - Shawn Sexton received enough votes to retain his seat on the Alpena Municipal Council and write-in candidate Cindy Johnson garnered enough support to upend Michael Nunneley who was listed on the ballot with Sexton.

Sexton ended with 1,370 votes, while Nunneley received 734. It was Johnson, however, who dominated the write-in votes, as she was elected to serve with 1,255 votes.

Sexton said he is honored to serve the people again and said he looks forward to continue to work hard to move Alpena forward.

"I am certainly humbled by the support I received" Sexton said. "Any time you run in an election there are rough spots. I'm not as comfortable as a self promoter as I am as promoting Alpena. It feels good to get the support and know there are still people in my corner. I'm excited about the future of the council and I think we have a great opportunity and excited about making a positive future for Alpena."

It didn't take long to see Johnson was going to be tough to beat when the write-in results came in from precinct No. 2. She received 136 votes and as results trickled in Johnson pulled away from write-in candidates Anna Bass and Cal Howard, as well as Nunneley.

Johnson said there was a lot of hard work done on her campaign to overcome the challenges write-in candidates face. She said she is eager to get to work on the council.

"I'm so pleased the voters came out and voted for me. I just couldn't be happier," Johnson said. "We had a great group of people and a lot of support that we're educating voters on how to vote for a write-in and we just kept our nose to the ground and worked hard. The results are just wonderful."

Over all there were 1,860 write-in votes cast. Bass ended with 416, while Howard garnered 175. There were 3,950 ballots cast.